April Fools Day Recipe: Is This Really a Bowl of Cereal?

Our favorite April Fools Day food tricks are more nice than naughty - the classic idea of serving foods that look like other foods. You've probably seen the meatloaf "iced" with mashed potatoes to look like a cake. Maybe you've even seen mashed potatoes and gravy in a parfait glass, mounded up to look like a butterscotch sundae.

This year, we were looking for a new trick to truly fool our favorite people. Did we fool you? Did you think that's a bowl of cereal and milk in the photo?

We found this pseudo-Indian recipe on the website of the Surreal Gourmet, and were surprised to find out it's not just a good trick; it's pretty tasty too. We're snacking on the leftover spicy cereal as we speak.

The recipe calls for you to first melt butter in a pan, with a tablespoon of garam masala, or mixed Indian spices. (Check out our recipe for homemade garam masala.) After stirring in a cupful of the cereal, you bake the whole lot in the oven for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, you simmer chopped cauliflower and onion in cream or milk, until the cauliflower is tender. You puree the cauliflower mixture, then serve with plenty of the cereal on top.

This makes a perfectly white soup, but it was a bit mild for our tastes. We recommend adding some coconut milk, and perhaps leeks to the base. We considered adding spices, but that would ruin the nice contrast between the soup and the spicy cereal.

We love the idea of saying to the spouse or the roommate, "I'm tired. We're just having cereal for dinner tonight," then watching their face and they realize they've been tricked!

Some other April Fools Day recipes:

• Cooking Village has a recipe for that meatloaf "cake", and four other ideas.

• All Recipes suggests rolling balls of ice cream in cocoa to make them look like baked potatoes. They also have another version of a trick cake - spaghetti baked in a springform pan, then covered in ricotta.

• Family Fun has a host of different recipes, including a dessert that looks just like Chicken Pot Pie.

What are you doing for April Fools Day?

Images: Bowl of Cereal by Nina Callaway for The Kitchn; Cake from Cooking Village.